CLEVELAND — Calling for a return to “the America I believe in,” President Barack Obama pointed to his own biography in a fiery speech here Wednesday to oppose extending tax cuts for the wealthy.
In a sweeping economic address, Obama accused Republicans of distorting recent history with their claim that Democrats are responsible for faltering employment and the ballooning deficit. But he made the argument about more than just economic policies, saying core American values — such as hard work and individual responsibility — are at stake in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I had a single mom who put herself through school and would wake before dawn to make sure I got a decent education. Michelle can still remember her father heading out to his job as a city worker long after multiple sclerosis had made it impossible for him to walk without crutches,” Obama told the crowd of about 800 at Cuyahoga Community College.
“Yes, our families believed in the American values of self-reliance and individual responsibility, and they instilled those values in their children,” he continued. “But they also believed in a country that rewards responsibility. A country that rewards hard work. A country built upon the promise of opportunity and upward mobility.”
With dipping poll numbers on the economy, Obama is taking the fight directly to the opposition. In a new Washington Post/ABC poll, 43 percent of voters said they prefer Republicans on financial issues, compared with 39 percent for Democrats — the first time the GOP has been ahead since 2002. The White House chose Cleveland for Obama’s trip as a direct rebuttal to House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who in the same city two weeks earlier called on Obama to fire his economic team. (The president declined.)
Obama seemed to revel in ridiculing Boehner’s speech.
“There were no new policies from Mr. Boehner. There were no new ideas. There was just the same philosophy we already tried during the decade that they (the GOP) were in power — the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: Cut more taxes for millionaires, and cut more rules for corporations,” Obama said.
Boehner, meanwhile, sought to take advantage of Obama’s visit for his own purposes, unveiling what the Republican called a new “two-point plan” to freeze spending and continue the Bush tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in January.
His ideas resembled those he had proposed before, and Democrats criticized them as insufficient to reduce the deficit. But they offered a clear counterpoint to the president, whose economic message has shifted from hailing the “recovery summer” to unveiling new proposals that his advisers insist are not a stimulus.
